Coburg, OR

Digital nomads Rusty and Tom.

To Coburg, OR

A beautifull ride this morning along the McKenzie River towards Coburg, just north of Eugene.

McKenzie Bridge, OR

Our site in the Forestry Service campground under amazingly tall trees and about 5 metres from the raging McKenzie River.

To McKenzie Bridge. OR.

We descended the western side of the pass and the scenery changed dramaticaly to deliciously green cool moist dense forest.

To McKenzie Bridge, OR

McKenzie Pass was closed so we crossed Santiam Pass. Yay! The last major climb of the trip.

Sisters, OR

Early morning on the trendy main street in Sisters before it gets crowded with traffic.

Sisters, OR.

No showers at the Sisters City Park but the sprinklers were a good substitute. Any passers-by must have had a chuckle at the sight of a bunch of old guys running around in the sprinklers. Now I know why Gondor, one of my alpacas, loves standing in the sprays, it was great! Here's Bill doing his rain dance.

To Sisters, OR.

It was a leisurely 43 mile ride from Prineville to Sisters today. It is amazing what irrigation can do in this hot, dusty and seemingly arid landscape. Near Sisters (the conical peaks on the horizon) the landscape starts changing. Looks like we'll be back in the mountains and forests tomorrow.

Ingo

After having milkshakes when we got to Prinville, it was farewell to Ingo, my roommate and riding partner. He leaves the group now to ride north to Portland to meet up with his wife, Gudrun, who is flying out from Germany to cycle down the East coast with him. They will meet us in Florence.

To Prineville, OR.

A steep 3 hour climb out of Mitchell greeted us this morning. What should've been an easy coast down to Prinville turned out to be hot work.

Mitchell, OR.

I haven't seen the size of any of Mitchell's 160 inhabitants. Maybe they are worried about the out-of-towners?

Picture Gorge

27 July. Entering Picture Gorge. This dramatic gorge was eroded by the river through the layers of basalt that poured out at about 8000 year intervals about 16 million years ago. The name comes from the American Indian pictographs that were found on the walls of the gorge. This was the start of a 26 mile climb to the summit of Keys Creek Pass followed by a sweet downhill to Mitchell.

Prairie City - Mitchell, OR.

27 July. We were on the road at 6am to get some of today's 84 miles done before the heat. After breakfast in John Day, we stocked up with extra water in Dayville for the hot 39 miles to Mitchell without services along the way. This is Dayville Mercantile that was established over a hundred years ago.

Prairie City, OR.

It's Sunday and we couldn't get groceries here so we had an excellent dinner at the Oxbow. What's with the American obsession with hunting? I guess the taxidermists make a good living.

Hey, look, my own county!

To Prairie City, OR.

After the barren landscape the past few days, it felt good to be in the pine forests again. This was on one of three 5000+ft summits we had to cross today.

Baker City, OR.

The welcome sight of the irrigated valley at Baker City. It wasn't as hot today due to the cool wind. The fact that it was a headwind didn't seem so bad!

To Baker City, OR.

I thought the engineers had run out of ideas or funds with the old road we were on next to the river. Turns out it was a massive landslide that blocked the road and made the high detour necessary.

Halfway, OR.

Our barnyard campsite in Halfway. It is nice when the sun sets and it cools down.